Russian Railways (RZD) has chosen a Chinese company as a co-contractor in the construction of 770-km high-speed railroad.
RZD signed an agreement with a consortium of two Russian companies and China Railway ErYuan Engineering Group Company Limited (CREEC) worth 20 billion roubles ($380m), the company said in an online official statement, news agency Xinhua reported.
The three companies will jointly build the high-speed track project which connects Moscow with Kazan, capital of Tatarstan Republic.
According to Xinhua, RZD said that the Russian-Chinese consortium is "the most promising professional community" that combines long-time, practical and successful experiences of the implementation of high-speed rail construction projects.
It is expected that the works under the contract will be completed by December 2016, while the total project investment is estimated at over 1 trillion roubles ($19bn).
The Moscow-Kazan railway will be the first in Russia specifically designed and built for rapid transit.
Until now, the high-speed trains in Russia running between Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, still use regular tracks.
Photograph: No stranger to overseas work: China’s CREEC engineers working with Venezuelan counterparts on the Tinaco-Anaco rail project, an EPC project won in 2009 (CREEC)
